The New Lead Law

What do I care about the new lead law taking effect April 22? Well, if your house was built before 1978, you should care a lot. ANY work you do on your house where lead paint or other lead products could be disturbed are fair game for enforcement.

As a contractor, if we pull a permit for ANYTHING on a house built before 1978, we have to report it and follow the new rules. The new rules will roughly add 10-18% to the project labor costs to do the site cleaning and prevention that the law requires. And that is if we are not messing with the lead.

Let me be clear. WE DON’T MAKE ANY MORE MONEY ON THIS! Those extra costs cover labor, training, certification, and equipment for the law changes. That extra cost is passed on to the consumer and we don’t keep any. It is all to compensate for the costs this new enforcement brings about.

I am not against what the law is intended to do. Frankly, this should have been in effect years ago. But it is a polar change to the current remodeling law and it greatly affects cost.

Are you thinking “I’ll just sneak through and save that money by not hiring a certified contractor”? Think again. If you get caught, the per-day fines you can pay are up to $30,000.

No joke! And this is a Federal Law change enforced by the EPA, so don’t assume your local authorities won’t be enforcing it…..